Ill 



LECTURES ON EVOLUTION 73 



stratified rocks. I leave you to consider how far, 

 by any ingenuity of interpretation, by any stretch- 

 ing of the meaning of language, it can be brought 

 into harmony with the Miltonic hypothesis. 



There remains the third hypothesis, that of 

 which I have spoken as the hypothesis of evolu- 

 tion ; and I purpose that, in lectures to come, we 

 should discuss it as carefully as we have con- 

 sidered the other two hypotheses. I need not say 

 that it is quite hopeless to look for testimonial 

 evidence of evolution. The very nature of the 

 case precludes the possibility of such evidence, for 

 the human race can no more be expected to testify 

 to its own origin, than a child can be tendered as 

 a witness of its own birth. Our sole inquiry is, 

 what foundation circumstantial evidence lends to 

 the hypothesis, or whether it lends none, or 

 whether it controverts the hypothesis. I shall 

 deal with the matter entirely as a question of 

 history. I shall not indulge in the discussion of 

 any speculative probabilities. I shall not attempt 

 to show that Nature is unintelligible unless we 

 adopt some such hypothesis. For anything I 

 know about the matter, it may be the way of 

 Nature to be unintelligible ; she is often puzzling, 

 and I have no reason to suppose that she is bound 

 to fit herself to our notions. 



I shall place before you three kinds of evidence 

 entirely based upon what is known of the forms 

 of animal life which are contained in the series 





